Reorienting research investments toward under-researched crops for sustainable food systems

Abstract

The dominance of a few staple crops (maize, rice, and wheat) in most agricultural systems hampers the application of interventions to improve food security and nu trition. Research and development attention has focused on improving the pro duction and utilization of these crops, leaving other crops under-researched and underutilized. Subsequently, there have been high malnutrition rates due to poor diet diversity, yet there are “opportunity crops” that remain under researched. The opportunity crops can unlock solutions to food insecurity, malnutrition, a lack of biodiversity, and indeed poor climate adaptation. The study explored diversifica tion in agricultural systems to analyze whether reorientation of research invest ment to include under-researched crops can increase nutrient gain and enhance dietary diversity. Research outputs benchmarked as the number of publications from three leading African universities, Nairobi, Pretoria, and Ghana, were related to crop diversity and nutrition of crops in five clusters: cereals, vegetables, leg umes, roots and tubers, and nuts. The findings show that maize was the predomi nantly researched crop across the three institutions. Low research outputs were observed for pearl millet, finger millet, and yam across the three institutions: ama ranth and nightshade (Pretoria), sweet potatoes (Pretoria and Ghana), Marama bean (Nairobi), and soya bean (Nairobi and Ghana). There was nutrient gain across all five clusters, particularly from under-researched indigenous crops such as finger millet, amaranth, nightshade, yam, sweet potatoes, Marama bean, and soybean. Nutrient gain was contributed more by cereals and root and tuber crops from Pretoria, vegetables and nuts (Ghana), as well as legumes (Nairobi). The find ings demonstrate that incorporating research on the least researched crops with successful integration of other research and development initiatives (policy and dissemination) can increase nutrition and improve dietary diversity. The nutrient gain will positively affect food security and nutrition, contributing to the achieve ment of Africa Agenda 2063, the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals,and reducing food imports. The findings can inform research investment and decision across different institutions within the African continent. Research in vestment targeting crops such as finger millet, amaranthus, sweet potatoes, soya beans, and cashew nuts is needed considering the nutritional contribution, cli mate change adaptability, market potential, and biodiversity contribution. Further analysis should explore production, socio-economic (marketability and income generation), and environmental gains (adaptive ability to climate change) for spe cific crops. The development of frameworks to guide the analysis of the nature and scope of factors affecting the contribution of these crops to food security and nutri tion, as well as research on specific crops considering geographic distribution and institutional involvement, is also needed.